The Aftermath: Donetsk International Airport

The Aftermath: Donetsk International Airport

On January 2015, Donetsk People’s Republic forces occupied the Donetsk International Airport. Sparta Battalion, the unity holding position in what is one of the hot zones of this proxy conflict. Among accusation of war crimes, the battalion still controls the area around the Airport, keeping the whole city of Donetsk under control.

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Soldier plays the guitar in the main position on the Airport.

Iverskaya is a cemetery located just a few hundred meters southwest of the Airport. The area controlled by DPR is still heavily mined and graveyards are destroyed or damaged.

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Ukrainian positions. Government troops still control Pisky, remaining on a fire-distance of 1.4 km from the main terminal.

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Soldier moves to a contact position next to the Airport’s runway. After the second battle, Ukrainian troops retreated to Pisky, a small village southwest of the Airport’s runway.

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Iverskaya is a cemetery located just a few hundred meters southwest of the Airport. The area controlled by DPR is still heavily mined and graveyards are destroyed or damaged.

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Ukrainian positions. Government troops still control Pisky, remaining on a fire-distance of 1.4 km from the main terminal.

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Soldier moves to a contact position next to the Airport’s runway. After the second battle, Ukrainian troops retreated to Pisky, a small village southwest of the Airport’s runway.

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Soldier among wreckage at the boarding hall of the Airport. This battlefield has a strategic value for DPR because from there, Ukrainian forces could eventually hit Donetsk with artillery fire. Whoever controls the Airport, controls Donetsk City.

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Tourist information desk at the Airport’s first floor. Since September 2014, Ukrainian officials started to suggest that would be more efficient, strategically speaking, to level the airport and retreat north of the main terminal, to a more easily defended position.

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Portrait of soldier member of Sparta Battalion stationed at the Airport.

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A soldier gets ready for a routine check in the airport first and second floor. It’s estimated that from September 2014 to January 2015, a thousand soldiers, on both sides, lost their lives during the second assault on the Airport.

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A soldier take a break from the fight in the first hours of an afternoon. The battalion keeps a few cats and dogs at their positions. Whenever there’s the need of searching for landmines, they send the pets to search for it. September, 2016.

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The battalion’s flag waves on top of the new terminal at Donetsk Airport. The Sparta battalion is part of the United Armed Forces of Novorossiya, an army formed by Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Luhansk Popular Republic (LPR) self-proclaimed territories in Donbas. Sparta played a key role in the second battle for Donetsk International Airport.

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At the main position in Donetsk International Airport, a soldier from Sparta Battalion keep an exemplar of Spartacus, a novel by Italian writer Raffaello Giovagnoli. The book tells the story about a commander guiding an army of slaves fighting for freedom from the Roman empire.